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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Enjoyed this one. It wasn't necessarily a "couldn't put it down" and the pacing felt a little low on places. But I loved all the Texas history and places, felt like home.
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Some stories feel like a movie as you read them. The image within the pages presented so well that it just jumps out. Such was the case with this novel, though so too was it like a movie in it’s predictability.
As Captain Kidd advances into seventy years of age, he finds himself traveling through Texas to read newspapers to small town folk. In the wake of the Civil War, Texas is alive with its own scuffles with Native American raiders and internal strife. Upon being offered compensation, Captain Kidd breaks his solitary travels to take a formerly captive ten-year-old girl back to her family in San Antonio. Having spent the last four years with the Kiowa, Johanna has forgotten her former existence and adopted Native American ways. Johanna does not know English or her family’s native German and as she travels with the mysterious Captain Kidd, she begins to find a new kind of trust. Even more strange to Captain Kidd is that he begins to find a liking to the strange girl who won’t give up her Native ways as they trudge through Texas. This novel was a good simple journey story. Captain Kidd had a task and both he and Johanna learned a great deal along the road to San Antonio. It was entertaining, expecially to read of the politics and culture of Texas during this time. However, at the end of it all, it was rather simple and predictable. The ending was clear and it was heartwarming. It was a hero bonding kind of adventure, where both characters grew to like each other and grow from each other. I did find Captain Kidd’s occupation of reading newspapers interesting, since it was difficult for towns to obtain news and even read it if they had it. And I found Johanna’s spirit wonderfully beautiful; she held true to that which she held in her heart and made the most of her situations even at a young age. I found the dynamic between Captain Kidd and Johanna to be no different than any grandfather and granddaughter.
I can’t find a reason why this novel did not strike me more, that it left me just feeling okay about it all. There was nothing dazling and nothing outlandish, just a simple story with a neat conclusion.
As Captain Kidd advances into seventy years of age, he finds himself traveling through Texas to read newspapers to small town folk. In the wake of the Civil War, Texas is alive with its own scuffles with Native American raiders and internal strife. Upon being offered compensation, Captain Kidd breaks his solitary travels to take a formerly captive ten-year-old girl back to her family in San Antonio. Having spent the last four years with the Kiowa, Johanna has forgotten her former existence and adopted Native American ways. Johanna does not know English or her family’s native German and as she travels with the mysterious Captain Kidd, she begins to find a new kind of trust. Even more strange to Captain Kidd is that he begins to find a liking to the strange girl who won’t give up her Native ways as they trudge through Texas. This novel was a good simple journey story. Captain Kidd had a task and both he and Johanna learned a great deal along the road to San Antonio. It was entertaining, expecially to read of the politics and culture of Texas during this time. However, at the end of it all, it was rather simple and predictable. The ending was clear and it was heartwarming. It was a hero bonding kind of adventure, where both characters grew to like each other and grow from each other. I did find Captain Kidd’s occupation of reading newspapers interesting, since it was difficult for towns to obtain news and even read it if they had it. And I found Johanna’s spirit wonderfully beautiful; she held true to that which she held in her heart and made the most of her situations even at a young age. I found the dynamic between Captain Kidd and Johanna to be no different than any grandfather and granddaughter.
I can’t find a reason why this novel did not strike me more, that it left me just feeling okay about it all. There was nothing dazling and nothing outlandish, just a simple story with a neat conclusion.
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
News of the World is follows the elderly Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd as he ekes out a living as a traveling reader of the world news in the outskirts of lawless Texas. The year is 1870 and Texas is in tatters from the Civil War. Bands of gun wielding opportunists and warring groups of natives run the roads between cities and villages, and yet honor-driven Captain Kidd agrees to deliver Johanna, a 10-year-old German girl “rescued” from the Kiowa Indians who kidnapped her from a deathly raiding party when she was six, to her relatives residing over 400 miles across the state. The tale follows a man in his 70s who longs for a respectful world driven by knowledge and curiosity for the greater good, and his companion, a traumatized young girl who doesn’t know who or how to trust.
I haven’t read much about this time period nor many Westerns in general, so this novel was selected on rather a whim. I am absolutely thrilled by the experience of this chance read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have already acquired another Paulette Jiles book because i was so taken by her storyteller magic and fabulous historical research. I hope those traits carry over to her other novels as well. Also, I’m a huge advocate for reading the book before seeing the movie, but merely knowing that Tom Hanks plays Captain Kidd meant that I pictured him the whole time! This did not detract one bit from the reading experience or my imagination, and I wholly look forward to watching this film.
I haven’t read much about this time period nor many Westerns in general, so this novel was selected on rather a whim. I am absolutely thrilled by the experience of this chance read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have already acquired another Paulette Jiles book because i was so taken by her storyteller magic and fabulous historical research. I hope those traits carry over to her other novels as well. Also, I’m a huge advocate for reading the book before seeing the movie, but merely knowing that Tom Hanks plays Captain Kidd meant that I pictured him the whole time! This did not detract one bit from the reading experience or my imagination, and I wholly look forward to watching this film.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I found “some” similarities between this book and Claire Keegan’s Foster. Both heartwarming stories featuring a young girl and good people wanting to do the right thing. Real characters here and straightforward no extra writing. Cinematic and a pleasant read.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Rich and colorful characters populate this story set in Texas in the last half of the nineteenth century. The protagonist, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, moves among the Mexicans ranchers, German farmers, displaced former Confederate soldiers, Irish shopkeepers, US Army officers, cowboys, and townfolk scratching out a living on the Texas frontier. A widower in his 70s, the Captain travels from town to town reading the news of the world to audiences eager to hear it for 10 cents a head. At one stop on his endless tour of towns, he is paid by an Army officer to take a 10-year-old girl, born to a German farm family and captured and adopted by the Kiowa Indians who slaughtered her parents, back to her relatives 400 miles to the south.
The author's skillful dialogue makes vivid the accents and cadences of speech from this stew of ethnicities. The reader can hear each character's background, manners, and mores in their speech -- the Captain, both Victorian and Southern; the rough frontier types; the frugal farmers; and most of all Johanna, the little girl fluent only in Kiowa but with a dim memory of her parents' German and a bright child's willingness to parrot new words.
Together the elderly Captain and young Johanna make a long, dangerous trek with an uncertain outcome. Though they begin as strangers with no word in common, they learn in the course of their journey to understand one another well.
There are multiple cross-currents of using and losing the written and spoken word, for example, the Captain's past as the owner of a print shop and the demands of cowboy-criminals that they be written about in the papers. To say more about the story would be to risk spoiling it for other readers. I will add that I found the writing poetic, with not a single word out of place. It has been a long time since I've found a book so compelling that I read it in a single day.
The author's skillful dialogue makes vivid the accents and cadences of speech from this stew of ethnicities. The reader can hear each character's background, manners, and mores in their speech -- the Captain, both Victorian and Southern; the rough frontier types; the frugal farmers; and most of all Johanna, the little girl fluent only in Kiowa but with a dim memory of her parents' German and a bright child's willingness to parrot new words.
Together the elderly Captain and young Johanna make a long, dangerous trek with an uncertain outcome. Though they begin as strangers with no word in common, they learn in the course of their journey to understand one another well.
There are multiple cross-currents of using and losing the written and spoken word, for example, the Captain's past as the owner of a print shop and the demands of cowboy-criminals that they be written about in the papers. To say more about the story would be to risk spoiling it for other readers. I will add that I found the writing poetic, with not a single word out of place. It has been a long time since I've found a book so compelling that I read it in a single day.